Covenant, meet D-Presidential candidates

I know people really don’t watch TV during the summer but I need you to watch the Presidential Debate tonight on PBS, hosted by Tavis Smiley at 9 ET. If you will recall, Tavis Smiley announced these debates when The Covenant was released and the topics covered in the debate will focus on the key priorities outlined in the book. Tonight will feature Democratic candidates and Republicans will debate on September 27th. If any of you have ever heard Tavis, give an interview, the brother is extremely adept at asking probing questions. I forgot to mention that both debates will be held at HBCUs with Howard hosting tonight and Morgan State hosting in September. We are giving a hat tip to Tavis and the great work he continues to do for the community. Check your local listings, and if you can’t be at home, you can watch the debate online. Expect follow-up coverage from The SuperSpade.

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2 responses to “Covenant, meet D-Presidential candidates”

I wonder, upon reading your other column about the search for new models of black and progressive orgs, what you think about the role of Tavis Smiley in all that. He has some very interesting things to say about corporate investment– since his show and many forums are brought to us all by WalMart. BET cut his show. And PBS has ‘late nighted’ his show. Both partially because of their corporate influence. And yet it is the corporate influence of WalMart that actually supports the forum so I can hear his show off the internet at all.

As you were wise to point out, Wal-Mart is the only reason you can hear his show off the internet at all. The more troubling dynamic for me is that if Tavis were to say, “I want my show to be wholly supported financially by Black folks and those empathetic to our cause,” his show probably wouldn’t last long. I wish this were not the case but the progressive organization-corporate donor relationship is so entrenched that unless we take ownership of our agenda now, our idea of social change will in the end be dictated and moderated by corporate interests.

To his credit, I went to see Tavis speak when he was doing his tour of the Covenant and the main sponsor was One United Bank, the first Black-owned internet bank in the country.